Bonsai tree: Omiya Bonsai Art Museum and environs

Source: Bonsai Tonight
Omiya Bonsai Art Museum and environs

The people of Saitama City pooled impressive resources to open the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum in 2010. Billed as the world’s first publicly-operated bonsai art museum, the museum is home to outstanding trees, pots, stands, and historical documents relating to bonsai. Their brochure claims that three principles form the pillars of the museum’s activities:

1. The bonsai research center - The Museum carries out research on the history and significance of bonsai from diverse perspectives. The results are disseminated in an easy to understand way through exhibitions, lectures, classes, and so on.

2. A new tourist attraction for Saitama City - The Museum aims to become a new tourist attraction for Saitama City, one where people can easily encounter the beauty of bonsai.

3. An aid to the revitalization of the bonsai industry - By providing many people with opportunities to become familiar with bonsai, the Museum works to revitalize this traditional industry.

The museum didn’t skimp on trees. A rotating collection of bonsai gives life to exhibits and to the garden at the museum’s center. Here are some of the trees on display the rainy day we visited.

Japanese maple – the tree is named Musashi-ga-oka

Large Japanese black pine in huge antique pot

Modern bonsai display

Red pine and ginkgo

Amazing white pine

Mélange of bonsai colors

Japanese maple

Bonsai garden

Bonsai garden

The rest of the garden

On our way to the museum, we stopped to pick up Yu-senpai. Yu-senpai’s nursery is about 15 minutes away from the museum and contains a great mix of varieties. His father is a fan of Japanese maples.

Japanese maple in development

Peter enjoying the deciduous trees

Japanese maples

More Japanese maples

A twisty shimpaku

We also stopped by a bonsai supply nursery. Inside we looked at crowded rooms of tools, trinkets, antiques, pottery, stands and furniture. Outside sat pallets of bonsai soil and shelf after shelf of bonsai pots. Fun shopping!

Some of the smaller pots

More pots

All kinds of bonsai related supplies

I picked up a few knick-knacks – an old woodworking tool, bamboo stands for accent plants – and spent the rest of the time perusing pots. Most were new Japanese or new Chinese. Despite the great selection, I demurred and saved my Yen for older pots.

Not a hat – the pot that made Peter smile

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Bonsai tree: Bunjin Bonsai Bliss

Unfinished, but oh so wild and wonderful. I wonder what this Scot’s pine bunjin beauty looked like before it was collected somewhere in the wilds of Sweden. It belongs to Muaro Stemberger. It’s from his facebook page. Mauro also has a website. It’s called Italian Bonsai Dream.

Bunjin or Literati, bonsai elegance by any name
The following is from something I wrote for The Magician: The Bonsai Art of Kimura.

“Bunjin style bonsai originated in China among scholars and artist who were known as literati, which is another name for bunjin. Originally, literati style bonsai – which dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) – was influenced by Chinese brush painting. With a little imagination, the connection can be readily seen.

Perhaps the keys to understanding bunjin are the notions of simplicity and elegance. These qualities arise as expressions of freedom; freedom from conventional and habitual way thinking, doing and seeing. This type of freedom – which is highly valued in some traditional societies and is not easily obtained – results in a direct and immediate way of experiencing the world. This could be called intuition…”

That’s enough for now (I know your time is precious). If you’re one of those strange people who likes to read the ramblings of others, you can always purchase (our peruse your copy of) The Magician.

This triple humpbacked pine combines elegance and a rugged wildness. I don’t know who it belongs to (please don’t show me up by pointing out that it’s in an issue of Bonsai Today or one of our books, there’s no more room on my face for any more egg), but I’d guess that it’s Japanese. It’s from Lombok’s photos on facebook. Like about half of the bonsai you find on facebook, it’s unattributed.

A study in simplicity. This Japanese Red pine (Pinus densiflora) is the result of a challenge to Masahiko Kimura (the world’s best know bonsai artist) to create a bonsai with only one branch. It’s from The Magician: The Bonsai Art of Kimura 2. The original article is from Bonsai Today issue 69.

Few and far between. Have you ever seen a true fir (Abies) bonsai? How about a bunjin fir bonsai? This one is a Grand fir (Abies grandis) that belongs to Lee Cheatle. Grand firs are native to the Pacific Northwest. The photo is from the 2010 US National Bonsai Album.

Bunjin is not just about pines. Bonsai Today back issues (including this bunjin special) are currently 70% off at Stone Lantern.

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Bonsai tree: Decandling before and after – red pine forest

Source: Bonsai Tonight
Decandling before and after – red pine forest

Decandling is a great technique for improving ramification or for maintaining it. What little ramification my red pine forest has can be attributed to a few years of decandling. I don’t currently have any plans to further develop the trunks in this forest, so the branches are getting all of my attention. Here is the group planting before decandling.

Red pine forest – June, 2011

Top 1/3 decandled

2/3 decandled

Completely decandled

In addition to removing the spring shoots, I removed some extra vigorous branches to better balance the tree. The shoot below is quite vigorous – more than I want for this bonsai.

Vigorous branch

The branches below are better suited for development into branch pads.

Desirable growth

Where extra-vigorous shoots were crowding out more refined growth, I removed the vigorous shoots.

One of these shoots is not like the others

Extra-vigorous shoot removed

As I worked, I found a few anomalous shoots like those below. They weren’t spring shoots, but they weren’t exactly summer shoots either. Where did they come from?

Mystery shoots

About two months ago, I thinned these trees and shortened some of the candles – see “Thinning a red pine forest” for details. On one or two occasions, I accidentally broke the candles before they had time to develop. It was as if I “de-candled” these branches on the early side. The result of these mistakes are the strong shoots you see pictured above. As these shoots would continue to develop ahead of the properly decandled branches, I removed them to maintain balance.

Mystery shoots removed

After removing all extra-vigorous shoots and plucking needles from some of the more dense areas, I wrapped up my work for this season.

Decandling complete

This forest is another good candidate for wiring this fall. Once the branches are in place, I plan to repot the group in a slightly smaller pot. Read more!

Bonsai tree: Repotting The Imperial Pine

The Imperial Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) at The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. In training since 1795. Photo by Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight.

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Bonsai tree: Decandling a red pine forest – part 2

Source: Bonsai Tonight
Decandling a red pine forest – part 2

I decandled the red pine forest below about 3 months ago (see Decandling a red pine forest). The summer growth has come out and the trees look much fuller than they did in June. But because the summer was cool, this grove isn’t as far along as I’d expect for this time of year. No matter, in the mild San Francisco Bay area climate, pines continue to grow throughout the fall.
Just two days into fall, however, it’s too soon for needle pulling and cutback as the new needles are still soft. Some enthusiasts thin summer growth at this time, but I usually wait until late fall or winter. Typically I continue to water and feed the trees this time of year, trying to encourage out what growth I can before the weather turns cold.
I also check the pines I’ve decandled to gauge their response to the decandling. The trees in this forest have a long way to go to achieve any sort of balance which makes them great for practicing decandling techniques. Here’s the forest as it looks today.

Red pine forest, 16 years old

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Bonsai tree: Grafting Results

Some of you have asked to see results of the grafting done this spring. Here are a few photos to share:

This is a Red pine graft on Ponderosa. The Red pine is the bright green foliage in the center. There are only two grafts, and I've weakened the Ponderosa shoots somewhat. Perhaps by the end of next year I'll be able to take off all the Ponderosa, and then we'll have a Red pine.

The second graft on the same tree. Although the foliage is as long as the Ponderosa right now, it will reduce considerably in a smaller pot with less fertilizer. And then there is always the possibility of using the standard Black pine technique of cutting the candles, and then we have needles as short as we like.

A Rocky Mountain juniper grafted with Chinese juniper. The grafted foliage is the tight mass in the center, and the Rocky Mountain is the droopy foliage on the bottom. This was a cleft graft, with two scions. Approach grafting is also very common and actually easier for juniper.

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Bonsai tree: In Training Since 1795

Here it is. It’s a Pinus densiflora (Japanese Red Pine) that was donated to the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum by The Imperial Household of Japan. It has been in training since 1795.
The Japanese Collection
It’s right here in North America and it’s one of the best collections of bonsai anywhere.
Here’s an excerpt from the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum’s website:
“The Japanese Collection began with the gift of 53 bonsai from Japan on the occasion of the American Bicentennial in 1976. The trees, which were from private collections, were selected by the Nippon Bonsai Association with financial assistance given by the Japan Foundation.”

Not 1795, but not exactly yesterday either. This striking Japanese Camellia (Camellia japonica ‘Higo’) with its full display of remarkable flowers has been in training since 1875. It was donated by the Kyushu Branch of the Nippon Bonsai Growers Cooperative.
Does the reverse taper on the camellia (above) jump out at you? When it comes to flowering bonsai, Japanese growers don’t seem to mind features that would be considered flaws in non-flowering bonsai. As long as the flowers themselves are beautiful and well displayed, all is forgiven.



This old Japanese Black Pine was donated by Saichi Suzuki. It has been in training since 1895.
All the bonsai in this collection spent a year in quarantine before they could be displayed.

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